Lebanon reverses decision to ease virus measures after increase in cases

The Lebanese Ministry of Interior is reversing its decision to relax the daily curfew “due to the failure of many citizens to adhere to the measures of prevention and public safety, and because of selfishness, recklessness and indifference to their health and the health of their societies,” the ministry said on its website Sunday.

The country’s curfew will now start two hours earlier, and no one will be allowed out of their home between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m. daily, the ministry said.

CNN staff in Lebanon have observed that people in public have recently become lax about social distancing and wearing masks.

Meanwhile, a statement issued by the Ministry of Public Health on Sunday affirmed the need “to adhere to domestic quarantine for those who were required to do so by the medical teams of the Ministry, especially those coming from abroad and those who were in contact with infected people, even if they do not show symptoms of the disease.”

If infection numbers “remain high, I will ask the cabinet to lock down the country for 48 hours,” said Hamad Hassan, the Lebanese minister of public health, in a television interview Saturday.

CNN